Pyrography sells for a lot less than it should, mostly because makers price it like a flat craft instead of a time-intensive art form. A wood burned piece with six hours of shading in it needs a different number than a quick line-art coaster, and most sellers use the same price for both. This guide walks through how to price wood burning art so your rate covers wood, finish, burner tip wear, and every hour you spend hunched over a blank with a hot tip in your hand. TL;DR Price wood burning art by tracking actual burn time per square inch, not a flat per-piece guess. A $20-35/hr labor floor plus 30-45% markup on materials keeps most pyrography sellers profitable. Portrait and photorealistic pieces need a separate pricing tier from line-art designs, or you lose money on detail work. Craft Calculators' laser engraving price calculator for wood and acrylic signs adapts directly to pyrography's per-square-inch math. Key numbers for pyrography pricing $20-35/hr Target maker wage floor 30-45% Materials + overhead markup 2-6 hours Average burn time per detailed piece Why this matters Wood burning is slow work. A basic geometric coaster might take 20 minutes; a photorealistic pet portrait on a 12-inch round can eat six hours or more of shading, dot work, and tip cleaning. If you're pricing both the same way, one of them is losing you money every single time you sell it. Most pyrography sellers copy a number from Etsy without checking their own burn time or material cost. That works until a custom order comes in with fine detail, and suddenly a $45 piece actually cost you $70 in labor alone. Fixing that starts with real numbers, not guesses. What you'll need A basswood, birch plywood, or pine blank at your actual cost per unit A timer to log burn time per piece across at least 5-10 pieces Your wood burner's replacement tip cost, divided across expected tip life Finish or sealant cost (danish oil, polyurethane, or beeswax) per piece Packaging materials if you ship finished work A spreadsheet or calculator to hold the formula so you're not redoing math every order The steps 1. Log your real material cost per piece Wood blanks vary a lot in price depending on species and finish. A 6-inch basswood round might run $1.50-$3, while a hardwood cutting board blank can run $8-$15. Add your sealant or finish cost per piece, usually $0.30-$1 depending on coverage, and any hanging hardware or stands. Round up, not down — running out mid-order is worse than overestimating by a few cents. Common mistake: pricing off the wood cost alone and forgetting the finish, sandpaper, and any pre-sanding you do before you even pick up the burner. 2. Time three to five pieces at each detail level Burn a simple design and a detailed one, and time both start to finish including tip changes. This is the single most important number in your whole price, because pyrography is labor-heavy work where materials are cheap and time is expensive. Write down actual minutes, not a guess. A quote-style piece with block lettering might run 25-40 minutes. A shaded portrait with fur or feather detail can run 3-6 hours. 3. Set an hourly rate that actually pays you A $20-35/hr floor is a reasonable starting range for hobby-to-small-business pyrography sellers, adjusted up if you're doing photorealistic commission work that takes real skill to execute. Multiply your logged burn time by this rate to get your labor cost per piece. If you're new and still building speed, don't undercut this rate to compete — price the skill level you're delivering, and let speed improve your margin over time instead of your price. Craft Calculators' hourly rate for handmade crafts guide breaks down how to land on a number that holds up across a full order queue. 4. Add tip wear and tool depreciation Burner tips wear down with use, especially on hardwoods, and a replacement tip runs $8-$20 depending on your unit. Divide the tip cost by how many pieces you get out of it before the line quality drops, and add that per-piece fraction to your cost. Do the same with your burner unit itself — a $150 dual-pen burner divided across, say, 300 pieces over its working life adds a small but real per-piece number. Skipping this step is how sellers end up replacing gear out of pocket instead of out of revenue. Common mistake: treating the burner and tips as a one-time sunk cost instead of a recurring cost that belongs in every price. 5. Build a detail-level pricing tier Don't sell line-art and photorealistic work at the same price. Set three tiers — simple line/lettering, moderate shading, and full photorealistic detail — each with its own labor-time multiplier. This is where most pyrography pricing breaks down: a seller quotes a flat $40 for custom wood burning, then gets a pet portrait request that needs five hours instead of one. Tiered pricing prevents that mismatch before it happens. The math is nearly identical to what shops use for engraving work — Craft Calculators' laser engraving price calculator for wood and acrylic signs runs per-square-inch and per-detail-level pricing that maps directly onto pyrography tiers. 6. Add packaging, fees, and markup last Once material, labor, and tool depreciation are set, add packaging cost, marketplace fees (Etsy runs a listing fee plus a percentage of sale), and a markup of 30-45% on top of your true cost. That markup is your buffer for slow months, mistakes, and reburns. If you sell at craft shows too, remember booth fees change your break-even math for that channel specifically — pricing for craft shows walks through adjusting your price for in-person sales versus online listings. 7. Check the number against real comps Look up 5-10 comparable pieces on Etsy or in local maker groups at your detail level and size. If your number lands far outside that range, check whether your time estimate or material cost is off, not whether you should just match the lowest listing you found. A price that's a bit higher than the cheapest comp is fine if your detail level and finish quality justify it. A price that's lower than your own true cost is never fine, no matter what the comps say. Spreadsheets that fit this pricing method Laser Engraving Pricing Spreadsheet – Price by Square Inch or Centimeter Editable spreadsheet that prices engraved and burned work by square inch or centimeter, adjustable by detail level. $9 Craft Price Spreadsheet Calculator - Accurate Costs for Materials & Labor Calculates cost to make, wholesale price, and retail price with an editable general craft spreadsheet. $9 Craft Calculators Lifetime Spreadsheet Vault – 140+ Pricing Tools, One Price Every Craft Calculators spreadsheet in one download, including pricing tools for engraving, general crafts, and wholesale. $59 Troubleshooting Problem: your custom commissions never feel profitable, no matter what you charge. You're likely underestimating revision time. Add a fixed number of revision rounds into your quote up front, and charge separately past that. Problem: a wholesale buyer wants 20 pieces at half your retail price. Wholesale needs its own math, not a discount off retail. Your wholesale price should still clear your true cost plus a smaller, but real, margin — usually 15-25% above cost rather than the 30-45% you'd use at retail. Problem: you keep running out of a specific wood blank mid-order. Build a small buffer stock cost into your material line instead of rush-ordering at a markup, which quietly eats your margin on that batch. Problem: burner tips wear out faster than expected on hardwood. Track tip life separately for softwood versus hardwood projects, and price hardwood pieces with a higher tool-depreciation line since the tips wear down faster. Problem: your price feels too high compared to mass-produced engraved wood signs. Those are usually laser engraved, not hand-burned, and take a fraction of the time. You're not competing with them — you're selling hand work, and the price should say so. Tools and resources Craft Calculators' laser engraving spreadsheet for per-square-inch and per-detail pricing math A simple timer app or stopwatch to log burn time honestly, piece by piece A notebook or spreadsheet tab tracking tip replacement dates and cost Craft Calculators for the full spreadsheet library if you sell across multiple product types beyond pyrography What to do next Once your per-piece number is set, run it against your actual sales for a month and check whether your real hourly take-home matches the $20-35/hr target you built into the formula. If it's lower, the gap is almost always burn time creeping past your original estimate on detailed orders — go back to step 2 and re-time your top three sellers. FAQ How much should I charge for a wood burned piece? Price depends on size and detail level, but a simple 6-inch line-art design typically runs $25-40 while a detailed photorealistic portrait on the same size blank runs $80-150 or more. The gap comes from burn time, not the wood itself. How do you price pyrography commissions? Time the piece at your actual detail level, multiply by your hourly rate, then add material cost, tip wear, and a 30-45% markup. Set a fixed number of revision rounds up front so back-and-forth doesn't eat your margin. Is wood burning art profitable? It's profitable when priced by real burn time and tool depreciation, not a flat guess. Sellers who skip tip wear and revision time in their pricing often end up working for far less than their target hourly rate. What's the difference between pricing simple and detailed wood burning? Simple line-art or lettering pieces might take 20-40 minutes, while shaded or photorealistic work can take 3-6 hours. Each detail level needs its own price tier, or the detailed work loses money. Should wholesale wood burning pricing be different from retail? Yes. Wholesale should still clear your true cost plus a smaller margin, usually 15-25% above cost, rather than matching your full retail markup of 30-45%. How do I account for burner tip wear in pricing? Divide your replacement tip cost by how many pieces you get from it before line quality drops, then add that fraction to every piece's material cost. Hardwood wears tips faster than softwood, so price accordingly. What wood is cheapest for pyrography projects? Basswood and birch plywood blanks are typically the least expensive options, often $1.50-$3 for a small round, while hardwood blanks like walnut or maple run significantly higher and should carry a higher price to match. How much time should I budget for a custom pet portrait burn? Detailed pet portraits with fur or feather shading commonly take 3-6 hours depending on size and detail level. Time your own first few portraits directly rather than relying on someone else's estimate. One last thing The sellers who struggle most with pyrography pricing aren't undercharging on materials — wood and finish are cheap. They're undercharging on time, because burn time is invisible until you actually put a stopwatch on it. Time five pieces this week, real minutes, before you touch your prices again. Related guides How to calculate an hourly rate for handmade crafts How to price products for a craft show How to price Etsy listings without losing profit
